Recovery advocate: 'We don't have a cure for addiction'

The last time Annie Parkinson, 60, of Holden, had a drink or used drugs was June 13, 1982, when she was 28 years old.

Ten years after she embarked on what she calls her long-term recovery, Ms. Parkinson, who worked for the former Norton Co., decided to change careers and become a therapist.

She got her master's degree in therapy from Assumption College and now works at Community Healthlink in Worcester as the Suboxone coordinator for the Homeless Outreach & Advocacy Program.

She also is an advocate for recovery and treatment.

Her clients at HOAP are homeless people in recovery for addiction to opiates: heroin and prescription painkillers.

Suboxone, or buprenorphine, blocks the opiate receptors in the brain so people can't get high.

While the Suboxone program addresses opiate addictions specifically, Ms. Parkinson said the issues underlying addiction are universal.

"I think a drug is a drug is a drug. It doesn't matter if you drink it, you smoke it, you shoot it, you eat it. I think they're all the same," she said.

"They're all lethal in the end. They'll all use up your money and throw away your house and your job and everything else. They'll kill you."

Her clients, mainly people in their 40s and 50s who are working on recovery, have suffered a lot from their addiction. But she stressed that they mostly lived just like anyone else until the addiction took hold.

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Recovery advocate: 'We don't have a cure for addiction'